POPE BENEDICT QUITS

I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects.

Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI will resign from his post on February 28 - the first to do so since 1415, when Gregory XII left his post.

Sources say the 85-year-old is retiring over health issues.

In a statement, he said: "After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry."

He added: "I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects."

The Pope - who was elected in 2005 - recently joined Twitter and quickly amassed nearly 1.5 million followers.

His most recent tweet from the @Pontifex account read: "We must trust in the mighty power of God’s mercy.

"We are all sinners, but His grace transforms us and makes us new."

The move sets the stage for the Vatican to hold a conclave to elect a new pope by mid-March, since the traditional mourning time that would follow the death of a pope doesn't have to be observed.

There are several papal contenders in the wings, but no obvious front-runner - the same situation when Benedict was elected pontiff in 2005 after the death of Pope John Paul II.

Benedict is believed to have suffered a stroke in 1991 and rumours about his state of health have persisted in recent years.

He suffered a mild stroke in 2005 and is on medication for a heart condition.